Am I covered if my son drives my cars?

What is the name of your state? California
I have a policy with State Farm for my 3 autos. My 21 year old son is listed as a driver on these cars. They has him assigned as the primary driver of the Honda Civic. My son has had a few tickets. He recently got a new truck and could not afford the rates State Farm was charging so he found insurance with someone else. I sold the Honda and told State Farm to remove the vehicle from my policy. They said that if I did that they would move my son over to one of my other cars and the rates for that vehicle would go up,unless I remove his name from my policies completley. I really did not want to do this because he does still live in my home. My question is since I removed him from my policy,what happens if by some chance he drives my car and has an accident. Is insurance covering the person driving the car or the car itself no matter who the driver is?

your insurance will probably require that he be EXCLUDED from your policy if you remove him, which means, no coverage if he is driving.

If he has his own truck with his own insurance...why the need to drive YOUR vehicles???

He doesn't drive my vehicles on a regular basis because he does have his own, now but sometimes he takes my cars and puts gas in them for me.

If he has his own policy, it is possible that it also covers his driving in someone else's car if done on an infrequent basis.

You need to sit down with him and compare policies and coverage to see if he is covered or not. If there is any doubt, then you need to keep him from driving your cars.

- Carl

Everyone that responded was generally accurate.

When your agent is telling you about "moving" your son to another vehicle, he is simply telling you that insurance companies base premiums on risk. They use 1 of 2 methods. Some companies will "assign" the driver to the vehicle that he drives, and base his portion of the premium on that. Other companies will "assign" the highest risk driver (has the worst driving record, or is the youngest driver) to the highest risk vehicle (usually newer, more expensive, etc) whether or not htey actually drive that vehicle. Now, the insurance company will generally ASK who drives what, but doesn't necessarily base the premium on what you told them.

If you don't want to pay to have your son drive your vehicles, and you want him removed from the policy, then the insurance company will probably EXCLUDE him. This means that if he drives your vehicle under any circumstance (emergency, or whatever), he will not be covered.

If a person who has insurance drives a vehicle on which he does not have coverage (your son driving your vehicle), he is taking a big risk, for 2 reasons. Liability and physical damage coverage. His coverage only covers him driving another person's vehicle AFTER that person insurance has been exhaused. So, if he drives your vehicle, and gets into an accident, his coverage will ONLY pick up after yours has paid out. Well, if he is excluded from your policy, then yours won't pay out. Which means that his won't either. Secondly, his policy will never cover the damage to your automobile. It would cover the liability that he caused to the others, after yours paid out, but it won't cover collision. Collision covers only repairs vehicles listed on HIS policy with that particular coverage. Since his policy does not cover your vehicle for collision (because its not listed on his policy), his coverage will not fix your vehicle.

How about this...ASK your insurance agent. Tell them that he has his own car and own insurance and would only drive your car very occasionally, would he need to be named on your policy for that. My guess would be No.

He was named on my policy before I sold the Honda. Now to keep him on I must pay more on my car?
nothing has changed as to how much he drives it now as to then.
I just wanted to remove a car.

tbud333 said:

He was named on my policy before I sold the Honda. Now to keep him on I must pay more on my car?
nothing has changed as to how much he drives it now as to then.
I just wanted to remove a car.

Click to expand...

The RISK is different. Apparently the remaining vehicles on the policy are worth more than the Honda. If he totalled the Honda, for example, the insurance company's responsibility for repairing the vehicle is LESS than if he totalled one of the remaining vehicles. This is just one example of the risks. So, even though his driving habits haven't changed, the risk still has.

By the way, if he is driving your vehicles as often as he was driving them before, then he SHOULD remain on your policy.

Which was and still is about 1% of the time.

As Carl mentioned, you should look at both policies. If HIS insurance covers him occasionally driving your cars (and the coverage limits are acceptable to you) then you can drop him from YOUR insurance.

And as the insurance agent suggested, make sure that he will not be excluded from your policy, because HIS coverage won't help if he is involved in an accident in YOUR vehicle.